


Study Buddies (or: the one where rachel and annabeth share in the misery of 8:30am classes)

by fandomnerd



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, F/M, Multi, OT3, Pre-OT3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-09
Updated: 2014-07-09
Packaged: 2018-02-08 02:22:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1923141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomnerd/pseuds/fandomnerd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was nine in the morning on a Monday, and Rachel was regretting everything about all of her life choices, up to and including signing up for Interior Design 230 at 8:30am on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Study Buddies (or: the one where rachel and annabeth share in the misery of 8:30am classes)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt: "Perachabeth, 'you look a little lost, can I be of assistance'" on tumblr

It was nine in the morning on a Monday, and Rachel was regretting everything about all of her life choices, up to and including signing up for Interior Design 230 at 8:30am on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Sure, it was an _interesting_ class, and she probably would’ve been way more into it had it not required her to wake up at the butt-crack of dawn to get to the Cooper Union campus from her apartment in Brooklyn.

She drained the last dregs of her venti americano, and looked at the cup sadly. “Aww, coffee.”

The girl sitting next to her snorted, drawing Rachel’s attention, and _wow_. She had to have been tired to have not noticed _her_. Curly blonde hair framed a—not quite _dainty_ , but almost fragile-looking in how well crafted it was—face, which was at odds with her intense gray eyes. Gray eyes that were staring at her in a way that would’ve seemed intimidating had her lips not been quirked in amusement. 

Rachel blushed slightly under the scrutiny—one of the many downsides of her complexion, she blushed way too easily, which sucked because Rachel wasn’t even a blushy kind of girl—and turned back to her notebook, praying to sink into the floor and disappear. As if it weren’t bad enough that such a gorgeous girl had heard her quoting her favorite comic book, she was only just now remembering that she had, half-asleep and rushing to get to class, thrown on whatever she could find, without really looking at anything. Glancing down at her outfit, she confirmed that _yeah_ , she looked ridiculous, and the pretty girl had probably been laughing at her, and not with her.

Prepared to keep her eyes on her notebook and pretend today had never happened, she was startled when the blonde girl scooted her chair closer to Rachel’s. At the front of the lecture hall, their Professor droned on, clearly loving the sound of his own voice more than he cared about whether or not his students paid attention.

“Rough morning?” The blonde asked sympathetically.

Rachel’s eyes went wide. “Uh, yeah. You could say that.”

The blonde nodded, then held out her hand to Rachel. “I’m Annabeth.”

Rachel shook her hand, squeezing lightly. “Rachel.” They let go, and Rachel expected that to be the end of the conversation. Except.

“I saw you were looking a little lost, and I wondered if I could be of assistance?”

Rachel cocked an eyebrow at Annabeth, considering. “Yeah, it’s kind of hard to follow along with Professor Manning’s lectures at the best of times, but this girl was _not_ made to function before ten in the morning.”

Annabeth nodded. “Yeah, Manning isn’t really known for his riveting lectures. But you take enough classes with him, and you start to figure out when to zone out and when to pay attention.”

“You’ve taken other classes with him?”

“Oh, yeah. He teaches a lot of the architectural design electives.”

Rachel’s eyebrows shot up. “You’re an Architecture major? That’s impressive.”

Annabeth preened. “Yeah, well. It’s all I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid. What are you majoring in?”

“Ah, I’m an Art major.”

“Oh, that’s really cool.”

Class ended before they could really say anything substantial, and as everyone packed their bags, Annabeth snatched Rachel’s phone off the table and handed Rachel hers in return. “Put in your number—I’ll text you, and we can set up a study date or something.”

“I’d like that.”

Rachel chatted with Annabeth until they got out of the building, and Annabeth spotted a tall, ridiculously attractive guy standing outside. Annabeth hugged Rachel goodbye, and promised to text her, and then jogged to meet up with the hot guy. He took her backpack and slid it onto one of his broad shoulders, then leaned down and kissed her. Rachel tore her gaze away, feeling like an intruder. Of course she had a boyfriend.

She spent the train ride home kicking herself for not having anticipated that, and for letting herself get her hopes up.

 --------------------------------------- 

So it turned out that Annabeth’s boyfriend was named Percy, he was a Biology major at Baruch where he was also on the Men’s swimming team, he had a part-time job as a lifeguard and the coach of a children’s swim team at a YMCA (and he probably rescued kittens from trees in his free time, just because he could), and Rachel was pretty sure she was falling in love with him, which _sucked_ because she was kind of also falling in love with Annabeth, who had at some point had gone from being her study buddy to being her best friend.

She had resolved to just ignore her feelings, and possibly dedicate herself to a life of celibacy, because no romantic relationships was sounding leagues better than the drama that was her life, at the moment.

Of course, because the universe liked proving her wrong, and Percy and Annabeth liked proving her wrong even more than the universe did, nothing went the way she had expected it to.

Example: she had _tried_ to be a good friend, and back out of the plans she and Percy had to see How to Train Your Dragon 2, because Percy had forgotten that that night was also his and Annabeth’s anniversary, and Rachel didn’t want to get in the way of that. Instead, Percy decided they should all just see it together, and Annabeth surprisingly saw _absolutely nothing wrong with this_.

Or, that time when they had gone to a bar during pride weekend with Percy’s cousin Nico, and literally everyone had thought that she and Annabeth were a couple. And instead of dissuading them of that notion, both Percy and Annabeth had played along with it.

And now _this_. Rachel had invited Percy and Annabeth to the showing at the gallery she was being featured at, and it had been great. They’d both looked more like Greek Gods than exhausted college students, all three of them had gotten buzzed on expensive free wine, and now they were back at Rachel’s apartment, giggling like children.

Rachel collapsed onto her huge pleather couch, and Percy flopped on top of her a moment later. Her face went red and she sent a silent thanks to whatever deity was listening that her face wasn’t visible. It was kind of embarrassing how quickly proximity to Percy could turn her on. She heard Annabeth walk up and then suddenly Percy wasn’t on top of her anymore, and Annabeth _was_. Rachel cracked open an eye and saw Percy lying spread-eagle on her sage shag carpet, grinning that annoyingly charming (or charmingly annoying?) grin of his. Rachel stuck out her tongue at him, and he winked.

Rachel wiggled around under Annabeth until she was lying on her back, which did _very_ interesting things to the way their bodies were pressed together. Rachel bit back a moan, and then made the mistake of making eye-contact with Annabeth, who was much more sober than Rachel had given her credit for, if she still had it in her to look at Rachel so calculatingly.

And then Annabeth kissed her, and her mind went blank.

“Hey, no fair!” Percy whined from the floor, scrabbling to stand up and find a place to join them on the couch. “I thought you said, ‘we have to wait for the right time, Percy, this is a very delicate situation.’” His imitation of Annabeth’s voice was _terrible_ , and Rachel couldn’t help the giggle that escaped against Annabeth’s lips. Annabeth pulled back, and off of Rachel, sitting back on her knees. “It _is_ a delicate situation, Percy, and this _is_ the right time.” She glared at him in that affectionate way she had that reminded Rachel just how perfect they were for each other.

It probably said a lot about Rachel that she was turned on by how in love with each other the two people she was in love with were, but. Well, she couldn’t quite bring herself to care.

Of course she was having a bit of trouble caring about _anything_ , at the moment, other than the fact that Percy had just started kissing her. Where the kiss with Annabeth had been chaste, measured, almost like Annabeth was testing the waters, Percy’s kiss was enthusiastic and deep. It was like he was everywhere, all over her, even though he was barely touching her.

She pulled back for air, her eyes flicking back and forth between them, between Percy’s eagerness and Annabeth’s tentative hopefulness. Rachel had _so many questions_. But when she opened her mouth, all that came out was “ _wow_.”

Well, she thought. There would always be time for questions _later_.


End file.
